Biology is under attack in the US right now — there are a great many people who are utterly ignorant of the subject who have decided that no, sir, they don't like it, they don't want to be a descendant of no monkey, and Jesus tells 'em everything they need to know. It's gotten so bad that one of our major political parties, while not making it a central issue of their campaigns, has made rejection of one of the central tenets of modern biology a signifier of ideological purity. There is a deep well of ignorance here, a strain of outright stupidity strongly held and ardently defended, and what teacher wouldn't savor that challenge?

Denying our intelligence and reveling in ignorance would seem to be the greatest blasphemy of all, especially when the exercise of such ignorance is leading to the destruction of that which we have a moral imperative to preserve.

Before we break out the broad brush and a have a grand time roasting all the Christians, be aware that some people who believe in Jesus have no problem with God using evolution to create us the same way as the rest of life. He's got the time.

maybe, one could find just a slight similarity with Russian/Soviet biology problems at the beginning of Stalin era, when he totally decapitated Russian biology, which was at the peak in the world (genetics)(of course, there are no assassinations in USA today on that field, but the final result is going to be decline of this, otherwise very live science)p.s.Is there any 'coincidence' by Pope Benedict's visit to USA?